this same subject kinda came up before in the evolution thread. the whole God versus science thing is an interesting argument...

on the one hand, in the absence of technology, you find that man credits everything to the creator. from rainfall to crops growing, etc. but as man understands the workings of the universe more and more, less and less is attributed to the "magical powers" of God.

in studying philosophy and the evolution of thinking throughout the centuries, it seems that the advent of western philosophy (started largely by the greeks) pretty much signaled beginning of the rift between science and religion/spirituality. and now that rift is like a chasm, lol.

what's interesting though is that the original greek philosophers like pythagoras (sp), etc, actually were taught in the mystery school systems in Egypt. it seems that the ancient egyptians (actually eastern thought in general) didn't have this issue with believing in God AND the scientific method like we do today.

their ideas about the nature of God, etc are different from ours, but they were able to reconcile it into one big picture. as a matter of fact, before you could even start to LEARN about metaphysical/spiritual concepts...you had to demonstrate a mastery of math and science first.

personally i think those guys were on the money, and the greeks kinda lost that in translation. the bible says God is a God of order and not the author of confusion...the universe is a system that was obviously designed by a set of rules, and the scientific method is the tool we as humans have to discover how it all works, so we can use it to our benefit.

but just because we're smart enough to see how God did it, and even duplicate it on a smaller scale (we're made in God's image, so this is natural), doesn't mean we should run and leave God out of the equation. i think that's just pretentious. but at the end of the day, it all starts with an assumption, so you have to make your own choice...